Armenia and its sorrows

THE PEOPLE AND THEIR LANGUAGE 39
host explained that he never killed a goat until it
was so old it would not breed, or because it was sick.
We asked no questions, but hoped the one before us
was only aged ! Besides this, we had good soup,
cucumber chopped up in bad vinegar, water-melons,
and grapes. The air of the place must have been
very hunger -producing, for, though we ate like
wolves, we seemed never satisfied."
The villagers and country folk are mainly occupied
with agricultural pursuits and cattle-breeding, their
lands often being at a considerable distance from the
village in which they live. Every morning and
evening they may be seen going and returning, the
unsettled state of the country not allowing them to
live on their farms. Many of the families still live
in patriarchal style, the younger sons and grandsons
working with the hired servants on the land. Oxen
and buttaloes are employed as beasts of draught, and
the agricultural implements are of the most primitive
kind.
In the large towns we find Armenians engaged in
every kind of business. The goldsmiths, ironworkers,
carpenters, masons, tailors, shoemakers, printers, dyers,
w^eavers, and watchmakers of Asiatic Turkey are
nearly all Armenians. ]\Iany also are bankers,
brokers, physicians, and merchants. They have been
called " The Anglo-Saxons of the East," and are noted
both for their mechanical skill and for shrewd
business tact. They strongly resemble their distant
relatives the Jews, in commercial capacity and instinct
for money-making.
The history of the nation proves that the Armenians
were formerly a brave and warlike race, but long
centuries of oppression have broken their spirit.
Compelled to bow down before every passing Mussulman,
and to give way to the rapacity of every
avaricious Turk, they now go softly, in fear both of